[SwinneySwitch]

Since 2004-04-19?

[Riley]

What on earth are you talking about?

[RightWhale]

why do we so often turn against those who are our natural allies, i.e., the conservative thinkers and scholars

Conservative thinkers are both rare and apolitical. At this time the postmoderns are adrift and conservative thinkers--still rare in academia--are seen as merely more anti-theorists. These days there is no coherent political philosophy, and it will take something amazing to fill the void. We will probably have to await the outcome of the war against terrorists before we see a new school of political philosophy. The White House is probably creating an environment for the new way of thinking, although they themselves are not producing academic writing while taking action.

[JRandomFreeper]

why do so many conservatives not relish our own cultural superiority?

Because relish goes on frankfurters?

Gotta do this quick before you get zotted... Welcome to FreeRepublic. New member today. Probably from the US.

/john

[cyborg]

Hmmm....welcome to FR. Plan on staying long?

[Dan from Michigan]

Two words. John Locke.

That said, much of the distain of eggheads have to do with much of the 'theory' used by academia as opposed to reality on the street.

[Begin]

Nice try.

[Jaysun]

I'm thinking of people like David Horowitz or Irving Kristol - I don't get the feeling that such people are disrespected by other conservatives.

[Dolphy]

why do so many conservatives not relish our own cultural superiority?

Relish and sense of personal superiority remind me of two things, ketchup and Kerry.

[BCrago66]

Nobody cares about you. Go away.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Baiter?

Gee....I wonder.

[cyborg]

ping... I nearly turned to stone today before Ole Crusty's concubines chased me away from the Time Warner Building *LOL*

[T'wit]

I'm afraid I don't quite understand your point. Conservatives rightly hoot at self-anointed "intellectuals" who hold ditsy views and couldn't make it as a burger flipper. But at the same time we certainly value intelligence (e.g. William F. Buckley jr., Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell). The thing is, a true intellectual has to do better than say, "Gee, I'm smart." He has to have a sound moral compass, lest his thinking go bad.

When pseudo-thinkers put their faith in the fads and fancies of the time instead of in timeless moral values, they are lambs for the slaughter. It's much easier to con them with bizarre theories than it is to fool a simple man of the soil or of the sea. As Chesterton noted, if a man will not believe in God, the danger is not that he will believe in nothing but that he will believe in anything.

[gcruse]

Given that the average leftist is a barely verbal barbarian, why do so many conservatives not relish our own cultural superiority?

Check your premise.  Academia teems with leftists who may be wrongheaded, but they are highly verbal, intelligent people.  If conservatives aren't smart enough to take the commanding heights of education, their impact on culture will be areas the leftists see as unimportant.  I'm not sure what conservative culture is, but if it is intolerance, religious bigotry, statism, and eager to surrender liberty for security, then it's not superior.

[Mike Darancette]

("eggheads", "intellectuals," "philosophers" seem to be terms of contempt.

Only when they believe that intellectualism is the end not the means to an end. To the liberal the end product of an education is the ability to spout and defend the liberal story line by rote.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Conservatives are anti-intellectual racists... that's why we like Thomas Sowell so much.

Go soak yer head.

[GOP_1900AD]

Modern "intellectuals" are a far cry from the wise and learned men (and occasional women) who were the norm prior to the late 1700s. Traditionally, the learned were in league with Church, king and country, and were not in any way either motivated to, or, inclined to, undermine the pillars of Western Civilization. Somewhere along the line, this all changed. The learned who had more traditional values, within the context of bourgeoisified secular society, tended more toward lives pursuing businesses or Conservative politics. Increasingly, those who would pursue a purely academic career tended to be those of a more Jacobin bent, and those attracted to sowing anarchy and undermining society's core institutions. Hence, the origins of the current dissonance between "intellectuals" and conservatives. In truth, there are many on the Right who are intellectual in nature but who pursue lives which would not label them with the noun "intellectual" as an implication of a specific calling.